My Father By Joni Byun April 19, 2008 Ahn yong ha sae yo, thank you for joining us today for this celebration. My name is Joni Byun, otherwise know as kuhn tthal. This brings back memories of when I was 15 and I had to provide a report back to the congregation after Triennium, a youth conference hosted by the Presbytery. I'm a little older today but I still play the role of daughter and I have the honor of representing the kids. We are so proud of our father. We feel like we really raised him well. If it were not for his wife and kids testing his patience or giving him good material, well, we probably wouldn't be here today celebrating a book. When we were little, growing up our first few years of our lives in Korea. My father would ride his motorcycle with all three of us kids hanging on to him. I still think of my dad as a cool, free spirit. I think of him like Jack Kerouac constantly writing in his notebook. One of the newest members of our family, my husband John said he knew my dad was a writer because he is often observing people around him. I replied that Koreans tend to stare. We didn't really know or understand our dad as we were growing up. He would grunt at us occasionally… I don't think he really understood us either. But he would help with our art projects because none of us got the artist gene. I remember a book cover contest that our dad actually drew for Dennis, who ended up winning a prize for our dad's work and to this day we still call him cheater. Now that we are older and wiser, we appreciate how funny, creative and talented our dad is. He has a can-do spirit whether he is making the world's greatest galbi, being a tennis champion, or writing a book. He's going to make it the best he can because of his integrity as an artist. Congratulations dad! We love you. And thank you all again for being here on this special occasion.